Seattle Day 7

This was the coolest National park sign we have seen.

Today we hit the last national park in Washington. It was an hour drive into North Cascades, and for once, we didn't arrive that early. This park was quite a bit different than the last two, because it is a drive through park. We never passed a gate or showed our pass at all. Instead, we drove along Highway 20 stopping for hikes and overlooks.

Our first stop was at the Visitor Center for Junior Ranger books. We let the kids buy a souvenir, and picked up some patches for their books. Then we drove down the road to check out the dam.

The drive through North Cascades was beautiful.

North Cascades has two large dams. The Gorge Dam is unique because it holds back emerald green glacier water. In fact, all the water we saw today was a really bright shade of green. We did a short walk to the overlooks for the dam and gorge. Then we saw the waterfall from the bridge. 

There wasn't been a lot of wildlife in this national park, either. We kept expecting to see some cool animals, but the trees are so thick, and even on the trails we didn't see much.

The water here was so green because of the glaciers.

This waterfall is so tall!

Up the road we did a hike called Thunder Creek. It was a short, flat hike that led to a large bridge that crossed that jade green water. It was really pretty, and the boys enjoyed playing pooh sticks.

We stopped at the overlook of Diablo Lake. The water is turquoise and looks totally fake in all the pictures. We loved it and spent a few minutes taking photos and enjoying the views.

We did another hike called Rainy Lake. This one led us down to a pretty little lake at the foot of the Cascades. You could see massive rivulets streaming down from the glaciers to feed the crystal clear lake.

The forests in Washington are so green and mossy. 

We liked hiking along the river.

Mark looks so grown up in all these pictures.

Mom gave up on her hair. Dad looks great, though.

We had a lot of picnics.

Seth has to go inside every open tree.

Seth's souvenir was this owl and it looks pretty cute in this picture.

The color of water here in North Cascades is gorgeous.

This park was so pretty!

Not sure what is happening here...

This tree was determined to grow.

Rainy lake was crystal clear.

Such a pretty color, too.

The mountains over there are in North Cascades National Park. We are standing just outside of it.

Seth took our picture.

And he snapped one of Mom and Dad, too!

Then we drove all the way out to the Washington Pass Overlook. This is beyond the end of the park, but there are towering yellow mountains all around. Mark searched the cliffs for goats, but we still didn't see any. 

The mountains are very majestic here.

The overlook was amazing!

It was getting late, but there was one more waterfall trail we wanted to try. This one was only 1.2 miles each way, and we didn't know too much about it. It was called the Happy Creek Trail, so it sounded very nice. As we hiked, we realized that it was incredibly steep. In fact, Mom's phone told us that it gained nearly 1,000 vertical feet over that 1.2 miles! Worse, when we made it to the falls, they were mediocre at best. Somehow, the boys took this in good spirit. They were excited when we spotted some wildlife cameras, but we were the only wildlife. 

Walking around the Happy Creek Nature Trail was nice. We should have stuck to this little loop.

All that this trail did was climb straight up.

We were exhausted!

Seth did find a tree to ride.

And we did make it to the falls.

By the time we got back and checked into the hotel, we decided to eat up some of the food we had left. We microwaved some soup and some had cereal. Then we went next door and ate pie, fries, and shakes. The fries were handcut and perfect. The shakes were even better. And the strawberry cream pie was top notch! Somehow it made that last trail worth it!

Seth ordered an italian soda.

Mark was all about the fries.

Dax loved his Oreo shake!

Seattle Day 8

View of North Cascades behind the Visitor Center

We were really tired to start this day! We did sleep in a little, but we still got some hiking done. After breakfast at the Buffalo Run Inn, we drove back into North Cascades. We did a few short hikes right around the Visitor Center including one to a rock shelter used by Native Americans hundreds of years ago, and another that was a gentle nature walk through the cedars. The boys really enjoyed spotting slugs on that one!

This is the rock shelter.

We saw a ton of slugs on this trail.

Our last day walking through the rainforests.

This leaf was as big as Dax's head!

This was a different type of slug we had never seen before.

Seth especially loved all of the slugs along the trail.

This bridge was at the end of the hike.

Mom likes to prove she was around sometimes.

Next we drove back to the powerplant, where we did a walk to the waterfall. Back in the early days of electricity, this waterfall and the gardens were lit with colored lights and music played for visitors. We wished we had known because they have added the lights back to the waterfall, so we could have visited the night before. Today it wasn't as exciting, but the waterfall was still busy.

The kids were getting a little tired of hiking.

They used to have beautiful gardens and pools to enjoy.

This is the waterfall that is lit up at night.

Our last plan was to drive out Cascade Creek Road. This would take us into a different section of the park to do a seven mile hike. Since the road washed out a few days ago, we knew we couldn't do the hike, but we could still drive a good distance out there and try to spot an animal. Of course, we didn't spot any animals, but we did have a nice drive. This is the only time that we were actually in the National park. The other times we had been exploring Ross Lake Recreation Area.

We finally entered North Cascades.

This Tahoe was a good rental car!!

We got back to Seattle around 4 o'clock and got everything up to the hotel room to repack it. We didn't hang around long, though. We quickly drove over and parked next to T-Mobile Park. Tonight we had tickets to the Mariners vs. Rangers game. 

Since we're big Red Sox fans, the boys were excited that they were showing the Red Sox game on the jumbo-tron until our game started. We didn't really care who won out of the Mariners and Texas, but we did have a favorite player. Seth's baseball coach has a brother who pitches as a reliever for Texas. We went to the bullpen to see him when he came out. 

We love going to baseball games.

They had a little Mariners museum. We stopped to say hi to Randy Johnson.

And also Ken Griffey, Jr.

Our seats were right by the foul pole.

We had the best time at the Mariners game!

Seth's first baseball!

As luck would have it, you can stand right by the pen and watch the pitchers warm up. While we were waiting for Joe Barlow, who threw warm ups with Seth at a practice before his call up to the Major Leagues, the Rangers pitching coach tossed Seth a ball. He was so excited! We continued to watch, but Joe never showed up. Eventually, just before the game started, another coach handed Seth a ball!

We quickly headed to our seats for the first pitch. After the top of the first, we saw the relief pitchers moving over to the bullpen. We made a mad dash and caught Joe's attention. He came over and gave Seth a few minutes. He handed him a third ball (one for each boy!) and took a photo right there in the bullpen with Seth.

The game was all tied up when Joe came in the bottom of the 8th. He pitched a clean inning and then the Rangers led off with a homer in the 9th! We were sure we were going to see Joe get his first win. But the Rangers blew it and had to upset Seattle in the tenth inning. We weren't too upset, though. We'd had an amazing day at the ballpark. It isn't every day you take a photo with a big leaguer and then walk away with three baseballs!

Joe Barlow was so nice to Seth.

Seth was so excited to get a ball from Joe. We were so sad we didn't have a pen.

Everyone had a baseball. It was awesome!

Mark loved sitting by the field.

Dax was having a great time!

Watching Joe warm up

Off he goes to pitch in the game!

It was so exciting to see him pitch!

Mark was in baseball heaven!